Manuel Estevez Amado, PhD student at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in the group of Professors Maria Vallet-Regì and Isabel Izquierdo Barba spent 4 months at Politecnico di Torino under the supervision of Professors Chiara Vitale-Brovarone, Sonia Fiorilli and Giorgia Montalbano.

The research activities were mainly focused on the incorporation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) in collagen-based electrospun scaffolds. RGD-functionalised particles were used in order to potentially enable remote control of bone cell activities.

Different methods of particle incorporation were explored, considering both direct mixing with collagen solutions and surface functionalisation of collagen-based matrices after electrospinning.

A large number of samples were finally produced for performing the biological assessment at UCM.